Distance learning offers flexibility for adult education

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (TNN) - Conni Marshall went from teaching four days a week in Wichita Falls to getting on Zoom from anywhere.

That includes being in Plano with her family.

“I want to still come see my grand-baby,” she said, “so that I feel safe, so that I’m not exposed more than I have to be.”

That choice of where they can learn is giving students a new sense of freedom, too.

“To let all these people know in these eleven counties we serve that we can serve you,” Janis Heebner said, “you just won’t have a teacher there physically. You’ll have a teacher through Zoom.”

Since offering virtual options for getting your GED, or learning English as a second language, Heeber, the program’s coordinator, is seeing students from cities she hasn’t before.

“We have a student from Seymour that we’ve never been able to serve Seymour before,” she said.

Marshall admitted virtual learning isn’t perfect. She said she misses being able to teach math from a whiteboard and help students who are struggling more intimately.

“But with this I can’t do that as much. With this I have to get on the chat thing and talk to them individually,” she said.

For Heebner, though, it’s the future of adult education.

“Move with what’s going on and be a part of it,” she said.

For more information on Region 9′s adult education program, click here.